5/21/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Thrilling wine with energy pulsating through every drop. Care required with serving temp and breathing time. I took out of fridge, uncorked and left for 45 minutes. Wine was lovely but in primary fruit. Green apple, lemon curd, grass, parsley, lime, flinty youthful. An hour later the characteristics change with toastiness, nuts and pastry. Gosh this is riveting wine. Medium acid (!), light bodied, pronounced intensity, medium+ finish. Drink now with potential for further ageing.

5/17/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Very well made wine, very good wine. Heathcote shiraz can be too big, with too much noticeable alcoholic heat and over-the-top flavours. This wine has everything in balance. Has good intensity, and length. I thought at the age of 14 it might be a bit more complex. I suspect that to get that a few more years are required if you can be bothered to wait. This wine made for a delightful close to the evening. 92 score is arguably a bit tough, I thought pushing it to 93 but just wanted that incy-wincy bit more complexity. I'd buy it again if given the chance.

5/17/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Very good wine that kept drawing out conversation back it due to the evolution it takes. It has a clear pale tawny colour. The clean, developed medium+ intensity nose initially has 'black raspberry', cherry, vanilla, sandalwood, and some mushroom aromas. On the palate dry medium+ acid, intense and with a medium+ finish. Although the label say it is 13.8% ABV, by taste I'd have rated the alcohol high due do some heat I felt. Aromatics and palate continued to develop over the following hour revealing red cherry kirsch (carbonic maceration?) and a hint of mint. Tannins are fine and subtle.

Aesthetically, drinking this Garamond at 7 years age is my personal sweet spot with enjoyable primary, secondary and tertiary aromas singing alongside each other in harmony. I know from having Garamond on other occasions this will go many more years. So, it is Ready to Drink: Suitable for Further Ageing

5/15/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Technically correct. Primary flavours in citrus and floral range. Couldn’t detect oak or malo. Long finish and intensity. Not complex and maybe a incy-wincy bit too much alcohol. Drink now: not suitable for further ageing.

5/15/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Delicious and has me craving for more. Clear medium ruby, some legs. Clean inviting nose of medium+ intensity offering violets, dark strawberry, dark cherry, vanilla, some subtle cedar. Seamless on the palate with no hard edges, the acidity and alcohol are well integrated and unobtrusive...long finish. Very good quality. Ready to drink: might reward further ageing....but honestly, it's a hummer right now. Why wait?

5/12/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Medium intensity nose of dried blackberry, pencil/graphite, and some cedar. Some black cheery added to those flavours when on the palate. Long finish. Balanced.

5/10/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Poured from Coravin with aerator. Clear medium garnet. Medium + aromtic intensity. Showed a lot of aromatic evolution in the 20 minutes after pouring, but enticing at all stages. The black cherry and tar remains a constant throughout. Initial early additional elements of pot pourri, vanilla, blackberry and clove give way over time to enticing fresh minty and black pepper notes. On the palate more emphasis on the pepper and tar. Enjoyable. Alcohol medium, acidity medium Shorter finish than I'd like. Ready to drink. Not sure where it will go if left longer as I worry about the relatively short finish.

5/4/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Can we consumed with or without food, noting I felt it was better without food. Deep yellow colour. No signs of fadng. On the nose dried lemon peel and the smell of baked and slightly caramelised apples. On the palate...wow. Rich, generous full bodied wine with a just lovely oily feel as it glides over the palate. Only a hint of acidity behind the tip of the tongue. Intense flavours as per the aromaric note, with a slight bitterness on the back palate. This one is joyously about the texture and shape when being consumed without food. A slam dunk of a wine.

5/2/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Although maybe not quite at the level of a Luke Lambert or Timo Mayer nebbiolo, in terms of colour and flavour profile it is in the same ballpark. Svelte red fruits with lovely balance. Good control of acidity and smooth tannins that do not cloy. It arguably captures some floral aspects of a stereotypical nebbiolo, but not so much on the tar. Very approachable and enjoyable drink at the age of 5 years.

4/25/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

On the PnP. Dark ruby colour. Medium to high intensity from the get go. Sweet spice, cassis. Smells enticing.

There’s plenty of stuffing left in this wine. Surely, this can go another decade or more. Still plenty of fruit present; cassis and a hint of black cherry around the palate edge along with a bit of acidity that lifts this wine maintaining some freshness. There’s a black tea in the centre palate, and a hint of mint at the tip. Nice finish.

Can be quaffed but still better as a food wine.

I picked this up from a local auction site for AUD 44 (~GBP 22, USD 30). For the price and its longevity it is good QPR.

4/23/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Very accomplished cool climate Aussie shiraz. On the nose whote pepper, black cherry and cassis. Full bodied on the palate. More of the same along with a slight cooling note (menthol?). Has a long way to go, but very approachable at six years of age. (Yet another) winner from Lethbridge.

4/23/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Cooled in fridge for 45 minutes, taken out and decanted for 30 mins

Medium garnet. Opening aroma of cherry (somewhere between red and black, but not clearly one or the other), and flowers. No tar on the nose.

On the palate hallmark tannin under the palate and around the lower gums. Light to medium bodied with gentle black cherry and dark strawberry coming through in pleasing linear manner. The tar element builds, perhaps a little too much for me. Long finish in the tar / liquorice spectrum with some bitterness at the back palate on the side.

Doing well at 11 years of age.

4/22/2024 - wongstonn wrote:

Deep ruby colour. I tasted with and without food, on the PnP room temp, at 5 minutes near room temp, and also after 40 minutes having been put in the fridge while opened. Tastes best chilled to under room temp and with air.

On the PnP aromas of black cherry, cassis as well as vanilla. After a few minutes this had developed to bramble and a hint of boot polish. On the palate, more of the themes plus a bit of spiciness. The feeling is of an acceptable if indistinct wine.

But with air, the mouthfeel improves a lot. It has an enjoyable smoothness as it glides across the palate.

An acceptable well-made well, better consumed a bit chilled, but in my view lacking some personality and feels a bit generic.

4/15/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Absolute banger of a wine. Intense nost of baked apple and quince. Intense on the palate. Full boded, rich. Good balance. Hedonistic.

4/15/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Pale tawny colour with a yellow/brown edge. Evolved aromatically from the PnP. Initial pot pourr and tar, moving on at the 10 minute mark to dark red cherry with slight glacier effect, cocia and tarmac. Some spice in the mouth. Later some slight bitter tar aftertaste. And later still some thyme aftertaste. Mostly balanced wine with little obvious tannin. Drinking okay but suspect it has peaked or is past its best.

4/12/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

On the PnP, without food and on sight and smell only:
Wynns is medium ruby colour and looks broody compared to the lighter coloured challenger wine. I’m instinctively like broody and moody. Initially the aroma of blackcurrant boiled sweets with cigar revealing itself shortly afterwards. So there’s the archetypal tobacco and blackcurrant thing going on. Some sandalwood too.

20 minutes in, sniff and first taste:
The tobacco elements in the Wynns seem more linear and thus more focussed. Mrs Wongstonn is calling out flavours I am soooo not getting like barnyard and fish. But I do agree with her that it has improved aromatically after 20 minutes. Vanilla still there and there’s a sweetness coming through.

Adding food the equation: homemade Wagyu beefburgers.
The Wynns came into its own. It felt like a harmonic note was sweetly resonating above the food. Good value cab sav.

4/12/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

On the PnP without food:
The Joshua Cooper is medium garnet and smells like the first days of Autumn when the berries are left on the bushes and are drying out and their colour is fading. There are hints of liquorice and tar in the aroma. Vanilla too. No hallmark tobacco at this point.

20 minutes in, sniff and first taste (again without food):
The Joshua Cooper has evolved even more over the first 20 minutes. Blood, ink and leather on the nose. On the palate it has an acidic edge of black cherry surrounding a core a black fruit, mint and finally some emerging cigar. At this point it feels like all the elements are there, but they’ve not integrated enough. More time required?

20 min. w. food. Does better with food. Feels more integrated.

Wine put in fridge overnight. Next day, contrary to my own expectations, it found an entirely new level. It was utterly superb. It just needed time and some air. I enjoyed the freshness. It’s a silky black fruit cored wine with mint and Italian herbs held with lightness and poise. Wonderful cool climate cab sav. I swooned.

4/9/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Gold colour. Intense nose. Even more intense on the palate. Oxidative flavours, nuts, hint of orange peel, 'sherry'. Wonderful balance across the palate. Textural, not quite 'oily' or 'waxy' but something 'lubricated' as the liquid flows across the palate. Very interesting and compelling table wine that will appeal to cork dorks & sherry drinkers

4/4/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Medium intensity nose of black cherry and violets. Black cherry on he palate with acidity around the edge providing freshness. Better than many a Beaujolais at twice the price.

4/1/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Linear wine with lemon and other citrus notes. Medium+ acidity. Pale lemon colour. Well made. Would buy again at this price to be drunk at this stage of development. I'll hold my other bottle for a few years and see what happens. There's enough acidity there for it to develop.

3/30/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Lovely cab franc. Nedds 30 mins to air and open. Purple, opaque. Medium+ aroma of squid ink, dried black elderberry, blackcurrant. A bit fo smoke that blew off 10 mins after opening. On the palate more of the same with some additonla woody and spicy (clove?) elements. initial mild acidity on the edge of the palate eases with airing making for a lovely smooth drink

3/30/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

I really liked this wine, but it will polarise opinion. It'll appeal to cork dorks like me looking for wildly new and interesting flavours, and very much not appeal to more conservative / ordinary drinkers. A field blend of friuliano, malvasia istriana, moscato giallo, and riesling. Colour is deep gold. Aromatics of ginger, papaya and floral notes. Complex taste with oxidised nutty notes, dried tangerine peel present too. Acidity correct. Thought it was more interesting to drink unaccompanied by food it was okay with food, but I felt some of the complexity was lost. A riot of a drink.

3/29/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

At the age of 20 years this is still drinking very well, with no obvious end in lifetime in view. Smooth with no hard edges. Not necessarily a complex wine but enjoyable regardless. Still, plenty of black fruit to be tasted. nowhere near as tertiary as one might suppose a 20-year old wine to be.

3/29/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

A very impressive wine. Kiwi fruit forms the backbone of the flavour profile. It's the purity, texture and balance that impresses me the most. Has a wow factor to it. Best oaked Aussie chardonnay I've had.

3/26/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Medium garnet, clear. Medium+ complex aromatics black cherry, mint, liquorice and smoke. On the palate also complex with medium+ acidity making it a food wine Black fruit, raspberry, mint, some well judged tar. Long finish. Personally I'd prefer Vinea Marson (Heathcote) for an Aussie Nebbiolo of this flavour profile as it is slightly better QPR for an aged version.

3/22/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

White Rhone blend, and at AUD 30 (about GBP 15, USD 20) it is a total, total steal. Opens on a nose peach and apricot, develops into candied lemon and Chrysanthemum, and tastes like the wine equivalent of a kid going into a big tent circus. Full bodied, lush, complex, captivating. Great balance. My WOTY so far.

3/22/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

If tasted blind it would have been unlikely I'd identify this as a nebbiolo due to the absence of the calling card characteristic tar and roses aroma. This is a black fruits play with a whiff of mint. The fruit is ripe, but if it were only a little less ripe it'd be green, It's delightfully on the edge. Light bodied on the palate: good balance, fresh, and again black fruit and a refreshing wint and salinity. Unusual and very enjoyable.

3/22/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Super clean pale lemon colour. Medium intensity nose of fresh green apple peel. On the palate, again super clean mineral apple/celery flavours. Smooth with medium+ acidity. Not had this type of clean taste from an Aussie chardy before, instead it being something I've assocaited with recent European pinot blancs and some Italian indie white wines. Chablis-like?

3/18/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Very good value. Pale garnet, light to medium body. Aroma tar, roses and some sandalwood. Taste as per aroma plus cherry and some earth. Tannins are pronounced, similar to a Barbaresco, and certainly more prominent than a Luke Lambert's or Timo Mayer's Nebbiolos. So, an Australian Nebbiolo that is reminiscent of an Italian one. This paired excellently with food...in my case a risotto of porcini and black truffle with roasted barramundi and foie gras. The wine matched the earthier and umani side of the food and handled the richness of the pate really well. For AUD 38 this wine is great value.

3/17/2024 - wongstonn Does not like this wine:

Light bodies. Light translucent. Has some fortified/port like notes that I don't want in a pinot

3/15/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Needs and hour or two of air open up properly. While airing there are aromatics of black cherry, herbs and silage. Thankfully the silage element dissipated with airing. Once aired is a brooding black cherry-based wine with thyme and mint notes at the back palate. I enjoyed the balance with the acidity nicely controlled.

3/15/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Consumed 5 days after retail release. Cherry dominated fruit accompanied with earth tones and a flick of menthol. Considering its youth this wine has lovely balance and really well-judged acidity. Good winemaking. I’ll buy another and see what it is like in 3 years. Not sure it has enough tannin to go many more years than that.

3/13/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Acceptable pinot noir - the kind of thing you'd think as 'nice' if you had it before a show or at the interval, or at office drinks. Balanced low acidty pinot in the strawberry/cherry spectrum. Not a cerebral drink. I had a Kylie Minogue Yarra Valley pinot noir a few weeks ago that tasted similar and was half the price.

3/12/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Joyously idiosyncratic Aussie pinot that dares to be individual. Consumed as part of a blind tasting against at 2020 1er Cru burgundy from Maranges. This wine more than held its own, curiously having a very similar taste profile based ona a foundation f black cherry and a nice food-friednly line in acidity. But t is not all pure fruit, it a more complex animal. Enjoy now and stick and naother bottle away for a few years.

3/12/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Well made wine. consumed following seven hours of airing, and having been chilled below room temp. Black cherry forms the base both in terms of aroma and palate. Nice line of acidity. Aroma evolution is very temperature sensitive, with ephemeral notes of dried herbs, menthol and a wisp of tobacco

3/10/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Needs about 90 mins in the fridge before serving otherwise the back palate feels alcohol heat. Once brought to correct temperature that heat is removed and what remains is a well balanced BDX blend retaining primary black fruit. Still has plenty of life in it.

3/9/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Good balance, medium+ body. Reminded me of winter melon.

3/7/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Drinking very well. Light red colour. Intense 'dark' strawberry on the nose and also on the palate. The handling of the acidity and the gently understated tannins is impeccable. A very nice wine.

3/2/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Top drawer Aussie chenin. Wool, lemon and struck match on the nose. Good intensity. Seamless in the palate. Really, a privilege to drink. Deserves it's status at the benchmark for Aussie chenin

3/2/2024 - wongstonn wrote:

Pure strawberry on the nose and palate. Balanced across palate. Low acidity. Party wine. Near Squealing Pig. Not cerebral. Good fun. Found it a bit sweet.

2/27/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

solid performance. Full bodied style. Good balance.

2/27/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Gentle, pretty wine. Orange at rim. Strawberry, cherry on palate. Soft supple tannin. Had as part of 13 flight nebbiolo tasting. Thought this could have been Italian. Very goof value.

2/27/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Pillar box red. Redcurrant/cranberry on the nose. More towards strawberry on the palate. Smooth, user friendly, smooth gentle tannins.

2/27/2024 - wongstonn wrote:

Consumed as part of a 13 bottle blind tasting of Nebbiolos. Polarlised opinion of the tasters. Would not buy again

2/21/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Still going strong at 19 years of age. Drinking well now, and I think can go for several more years, ans maybe improve kore. Still some primary fruit - faded blackcurrant. Nice balance.

2/1/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Religiously good and great QPR. Oaked chardonnay of such perfect poise, texture, and finesse. I bought this while on a wine tour and now, having tasted this at home having made a 'faith-based' purchase based on a tasting of a younger vintage at the winery feel sad knowing that the winemaker is retiring without an heir, the son having sadly passed away. There is talent in this winemaking. For instance this spanks in all departments many wines that are more costly. it's rare for me to think about repeat purchases, as there is so much great new wine to discover. At this quality level and sadly with an end in sight, this deserves and earns love.

2/1/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Very good bottle of Australian chenin. Fared best only slightly chilled and a long way off fridge cold. Pale lemon with medium-intensity aromatics. Packs most punch on the front -palate and is softer mid- and back-palate. the wine is less about the analysis of flavour elements (which fit in a typical Chenin spectrum...more South African than French) and more about the smooth waxy texture. Very enjoyable.

1/26/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Superior Australian tempranillo. This one is drinking great now, and I think it can still improve for years to become more interesting.

1/26/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Solid performance South African syrah. Main flavour is olive tapenade thought there is black cherry present as well. Wine is in balanced. I think will be better in a year or two.

1/27/2024 - wongstonn Likes this wine:

Well made. Excellent balance across palate. Initial nuttiness gives way to a endearing mushroom broth/ umani flavour. Acidity is there and kept in check. The body and acidity is similar to say, a Sancerre sauvignon blanc. Right here, right now this a more interesting alternative.